An image leading to an article titled "Bridging Gaps in Clinical Trials" from the Milken Institute. The image shows a white background with a diverse group of cartoon people wearing various colors forming a line that is shaped into a DNA symbol.
Report

Bridging Gaps in Clinical Trials: Strategies for Increasing Access and Representation

Professional headshot of Sruthi Meka, a woman with long black hair, wearing a silky white blouse and a delicate pendant necklace. She has a neutral expression and is posed against a dark gray background.

Sruthi Meka

Senior Associate, FasterCures
Sruthi Meka is a senior associate on the FasterCures team at the Milken Institute. Meka has experience in program evaluation, data analysis, and qualitative research across several academic and nonprofit research settings in public health and health services research.
Professional headshot of Lisa Lewis, a woman with short curly black hair and glasses, wearing a dark blazer over a burgundy blouse and a pink beaded necklace. She is smiling softly and posed against a dark gray background.

Lisa Lewis

Director, FasterCures, Milken Institute Health
Lisa Lewis has built her career over twenty-five years in biomedical research, from bench to bedside and from academia to the pharmaceutical industry.
Professional headshot of Sung Hee Choe, a woman with long brown hair, wearing a white ruffled top under a black blazer. She is smiling with arms crossed and posed against a dark gray background.

Sung Hee Choe

Managing Director, FasterCures, Milken Institute Health
Sung Hee Choe is the managing director on the FasterCures team at the Milken Institute. She is responsible for overseeing FasterCures' day-to-day operations, setting strategy, and delivering on initiatives in biomedical innovation and global health.
A smiling dark-skinned female-presenting individual with black hair wearing a black shirt and a pearl necklace against a dark gray gradient background

Esther Krofah

Executive Vice President, Milken Institute Health
Esther Krofah is the executive vice president of Milken Institute Health, leading FasterCures, Public Health, the Future of Aging, and Feeding Change. She has extensive experience managing efforts to unite diverse stakeholders to solve critical issues and achieve shared goals that improve patients’ lives.
Topics
Health
Health Care Delivery
Community-Based Health Care
Patient-Centered Care
Health Equity
Medical Research and Innovation
Clinical Trials
Drug Development Breakthroughs
Resource Downloads
Download Report
Stay informed by the Milken Institute

Despite high levels of spending on health care in the United States—almost double that of peer high-income countries—health outcomes continue to lag across a wide range of disease conditions. The differences in the incidence, prevalence, treatment course, and outcomes for various diseases across populations are stark. These disparities are caused by myriad factors, such as social needs, geography, insurance coverage, and income, as well as variations in underlying biology that affect the risk, onset, and severity of both chronic and acute diseases. They are exacerbated by a lack of access to basic health care and to innovative treatments through clinical trials for many populations disproportionately impacted by the burden of disease. 

In recent years, the lack of both access to clinical trials and the infrastructure to recruit populations across the US into clinical trials has become a major focus for researchers and clinical trial sponsors. This increased attention reflects a growing understanding that participation across populations strengthens the biomedical innovation ecosystem by improving the generalizability of research findings, boosting confidence in treatment safety and effectiveness, and building trust in the research enterprise. 

Given the medical and scientific imperative for representative clinical trials, FasterCures sought to identify actions by clinical trial sponsors, sites, and others in the research ecosystem to increase enrollment of representative populations in clinical research. We also interviewed community-serving and patient advocacy organizations about their perceptions of the effectiveness of these actions. 

Through this report, FasterCures aims to highlight current practices and insights from organizations actively engaged in a range of efforts to build collective knowledge and to serve as a resource for stakeholders working to expand access and representation in clinical trials across disease areas, geographies, and populations, all within the constraints of an evolving research environment.

Resource Downloads
Download Report

Related Content